]]>news-623Fri, 25 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0100Swisspeace course: Dealing with the Pasthttps://www.zasb.unibas.ch/de/zentrum/veranstaltungen/details/news/swisspeace-course-dealing-with-the-past/
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25.01.2019 00:00 - 26.01.2019 00:00, Basel, SwitzerlandContinued education module offered by swisspeace and the University of Basel]]>Learn how societies emerging from violence and conflict deal with the past and prepare for the future.

Finding a way to deal with a violent past in the aftermath of civil war, the end of an authoritarian regime or occupation, is argued by some to be the basis for lasting peace, democracy and the rule of law. This includes the identification of past human rights violations, the prosecution of perpetrators on a national or international level, the rehabilitation of victims, the establishment of truth commissions, reparation programs, guarantees of non-recurrence and commemoration. Course participants will critically reflect on such processes and assess their effects on society as a whole and on victims and perpetrators in particular.

During the two days, participants…

understand different approaches to dealing with the past.

get familiar with the most important notions, concepts and mechanisms relevant to transitional justice and dealing with the past (truth commissions, archives, reparation programs, guarantees of non-recurrence, etc.).

learn how dealing with the past processes have been designed and implemented in different contexts.

learn about the complexities, challenges and politics inherent in dealing with the past processes and the design of mechanisms and interventions.

exchange experience and become part of a peacebuilding network.

Leading experts like Prof. Frank Haldemann (Co-Director of the Master in Transitional Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Geneva Academy) and Dr. Enzo Nussio (DDR specialist, Center for Security Studies, ETH Zürich) as well as swisspeace dealing with the past experts (Elisabeth Baumgartner and Ulrike Lühe) will contribute to this course.

The number of participants is limited, so don’t hesitate and apply today.

]]>news-656Wed, 30 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0100swisspeace course: Theories of Change in Fragile Contextshttps://www.zasb.unibas.ch/de/zentrum/veranstaltungen/details/news/swisspeace-course-theories-of-change-in-fragile-contexts/
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30.01.2019 00:00 - 01.02.2019 00:00, BaselContinued education module offered by swisspeace and the University of Basel Tags: KAA1: Governance]]>Theories of change help aid workers and peacebuilders to make their programs more effective, but they are rarely used to their full potential. This course provides the conceptual background for working with theories of change in fragile contexts and focuses on how ‘good’ theories of change can be developed and used by practitioners.

It is a pleasure to announce the 5th edition of the National Dialogue & Peace Mediation Course, offered jointly by swisspeace and the Berghof Foundation, from 11-15 February 2019 at the University of Basel. The application deadline is 30 November 2018.

In this course, participants will:

get insights into how to define, design and support national dialogue processes

receive hands-on training in dialogue and mediation skills

reflect on lessons from past processes

exchange experiences and become part of a community of practice

Leading scholars and experienced practitioners facilitate this course:

]]>news-701Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0100swisspeace course: Mediation & Peacemakinghttps://www.zasb.unibas.ch/de/zentrum/veranstaltungen/details/news/swisspeace-course-mediation-peacemaking/
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01.03.2019 00:00 - 02.03.2019 00:00, BaselContinued education module offered by swisspeace and the University of BaselTags: KAA1: Governance]]>Mediators bring conflict parties to the negotiating table and support them in finding agreements. While mediation used to be a domain reserved exclusively for diplomats and UN envoys, in the last decade the range of actors in the mediation field has broadened and the field has professionalized. In this course, participants gain insights into the complex challenges of peace mediation.

In this course participants will:

Get familiarized with the most important concepts, definitions and challenges relevant to negotiation and mediation.

Understand the main dimensions of mediation process design.

Practice negotiation and mediation skills.

Experience the dynamics of a mediation process in a simulation.

Understand the Swiss approach of mediation and get a feel for what it is like to be a Swiss mediator in the field.

Exchange experiences and become part of a community of practice.

Leading scholars and experienced practitioners facilitate this course:

From an open and multidisciplinary perspective, the 2019 CAAS conference invites reflection on the question of originality and innovation, in relation to Africa’s relationship with the rest of the world. Invention, Originality, and Innovation have historically marked Africa’s past and present relationship with the rest of the world, especially the Western world. They have served to divide the world into two big groups: those who “invented everything”, and “those who never invented anything” (Césaire, 1947).

Africa has witnessed substantial continuities, and acute ruptures. The continent is home to unchanging processes that have prevailed for millennia, and other movements that are in a state of flux. Africa’s connections and disruptions are both enduring and novel. Moreover, the relative weight attached to each element, and the perceived relationship between them varies greatly depending on the positionality of the observer: from the colonial administrator, to the African farmer, to the entrepreneur, to the nurse, to the politician, to the preacher, to the civil servant, to the LGBTQ campaigner, to the aid worker.

This 27th Biennial Conference of the Southern African Historical Society comes barely a year before the 200th anniversary of the 1820 English Settlers who occupied parts of the Eastern Cape including Grahamstown itself, dispossessing Xhosa and other groups. The histories of these settlers were pivotal to the colonisations of what later became Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia, as South Africa became a base for British colonialism regionally. The broader southern African region is rethinking the legacy of dispossession: for example, with resource nationalism in Mozambique and decades of radical land redistribution in Zimbabwe, both of which have had significant implications for the region’s economic performance, leading to illegal goods and human traffic. The pronouncement – towards the end of the Zuma era in South Africa – of ‘radical economic transformation’ and ‘expropriation of land without compensation’ signals the need for historians to engage with these crucial issues. Another contemporary concern is the rise of China as a global economic player and its impact on Africa. How could historians of our time examine African economic histories?

This conference happens at a moment when university students in South Africa have made demands for curriculum transformation to reposition Africa in the global knowledge community. Moreover, with the passing of the first generation of post-independence nationalist leaders, historians are faced with the challenge of understanding the postcolonial moment. At this juncture, scholars have an opportunity to re-envision the future of southern Africa’s past. This can be done by rethinking the current historiography and imagining an alternative canon. It is not enough to merely decentre the old, but to also reposition the histories of the vanquished, their environments, their technologies, their pre-existing knowledge systems, social norms and political values.